Entering the fourth quarter of Wednesday afternoon’s Pioneer Athletic Conference meeting with host Perkiomen Valley, the Golden Panthers were locked in a surprising tie with the Vikings, and were scrapping exuberantly for the go-ahead goal.

Then, their exuberance got the better of them.

PJP was called for six fourth-period penalties, the Vikings cashed in two man-up goals and escaped with a 6-3 win.

Doug Stearly popped off the bench to score his first two goals of the season, both man-up tallies in the fateful fourth quarter, and the Panthers’ upset hopes slipped away.

“I told our team to play with intensity and intelligence,” said PJP head coach Matt McMillen, “but I think we got a little too intense.

“We wanted to play smart and hard, but we kind of lost sight of the ‘playing smart’ part.”

“Their kids came fighting, very scrappy,” said PV head coach Bryan Churchey of the Panthers. “It was a 3-3 dogfight and they started to believe and played their hearts out.

“They were playing with so much effort I guess they started to get a little over-aggressive.”

Enter Stearly, who got to watch his team struggle from the bench for much of the game, but knew what to do when he got his chance to play.

“I walked in, they were down a man, we moved the ball around and I happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Stearly said.

The goal, at the 10:27 mark, was the first Vikings score since a three-goal first period and gave PV back the lead it had lost courtesy of a three-goal PJP second period.

But Stearly’s hero’s turn was far from over.

After a pair of Panthers’ penalties put the Vikings two men up, the junior, just as he had on his first goal, took a pass from Kris Boyd and rifled home another man-up goal.

The two goals, 1:34 apart, squelched the Panthers’ chances.

Early on, it appeared the Panthers would have no chances.

PV’s Sean Tornetta scored just 52 seconds into the game, and when Jamie Klementisz and Ben Minardi tacked on goals late in the period, the Vikings had a quick three-goal cushion.

But Jake Bevenour set the tone for the Panthers at the outset of period two, winning the draw cleanly, feeding Jake Koury, then taking a return pass to score just seven seconds in.

And suddenly, the field was tilted toward the PV net.

Koury alertly scooped up a groundball in the midfield and soloed to pull the visitors within a goal at the 7:07 mark.

And when Matt Eads scored off a feed from John Bildstein with just three seconds showing on the second-quarter clock, the game was tied and the Panthers were sky-high.

“We didn’t do a good job playing within our system,” Churchey said, “and we really got away from our fundamentals. (PJP) was giving it everything they had. They wanted it more.

“Like they say, hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

“We were definitely down a little,” Stearly agreed. “We didn’t play as well as we should have. We played a little weak.”

The growing Panthers’ confidence was bolstered by a strong third period, which saw the visitors carry play, while the Vikings didn’t manage their first shot of the stanza until the 6:00 mark. Only a strong, four-save period by Vikings goaltender Bryce Womack kept PJP from seizing the lead.

“We’ve had a couple games where we’d get down early and stay down,” McMillen said. “But today we stuck with the game plan.

“We played four quarters hard.”

But almost from the beginning of the final quarter the penalties began to mount against the Panthers (2-5, 1-4).